15 ms·

The Heir to a Tofu Dynasty Finally Learns to Make Tofu

61 points by dankohn1 7y ago

leemailll 7y ago
Homemade tofu is incredible easy to make, it's only soybean, of course, water, heat, and Glucono delta-lactone
- onion2k 7y ago
  "<doing the thing> is easy, you just need to know how to <do the thing>" isn't very helpful.
  - leemailll 7y ago
    If you really want to try I can give you a recipe: 1. 180g dried soybean soaked in water overnight 2. drain the water then put in 1100ml water in a food processor 3. grinding for 1 min 4. filter the liquid 5. measure the liquid weight or volume for weight of glucono delta lactone, 3g per 1000g or 1000ml, dissolve it in water as little as possible, and then add to a large bowl big enough to contain the liquid 6. boil the liquid, after boiling turn to mid heat for 5min. Then filter. now you have soy milk 7. remove from heat, stir to dissipate heat 8. slowing pouring to the bowl added with glucono delta lactone, pouring toward the wall not the bottom of the bowl 9. cover the bowl with paper towel or cheese cloth, then the lid, waiting for 30 mins voila now you have Douhua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua), which often seen in China as a breakfast dish to get tofu, just drain the water out, to do so put the douhua in some container with holes at bottom and then add weight.
    - adrianN 7y ago
      Is the result much better than the stuff I find at the supermarket? Because that sounds like at least on hour of work.
      - leemailll 7y ago
        Well that depends on the kind of tofu you like, how firm it is? What kind of coagulant you like? Glucono delta lactone will make the tofu with a light sour flavor, some traditional way will not. Also water also play a role in. The recipe is easy but definitely not one suits every condition. It is a trial and error to fine tune it to your need. To be honest, this is one of the easiest dishes I ever tried, and also one hour work is on the short side
      - mikekchar 7y ago
        Let me put it this way... It's better in the same way that fresh home made bread is better than store bought bread. Now imagine that you live in a country (like Japan) where the average person thinks that a baguette is essentially a big hotdog bun that has been sitting on a shelf for 2 weeks. That's the equivalent of the tofu that you tend to buy in a supermarket in the US. It is possible to buy good store bought tofu, but usually it is unavailable unless you have a big Asian population nearby. Like bread in France, you really want to go to the tofu store in the morning for your tofu because day old tofu is tasteless and horrible (just like day old bread). Whether or not you can actually make great tofu at home without a lot of practice is debatable, but at the very least the average person can make something that is worlds apart from the lifeless, bitter chunks of woe that the supermarket calls tofu. If you get a chance to go to a real tofu restaurant in Japan or China, you should leap at the chance. It's just like your first trip to a boulangerie in Paris -- mind blowing.
        mytailorisrich 7y ago
        I don't know in Japan but in China I have never seen a "tofu restaurant". Tofu, of which there are many types, is usually part of dishes and I doubt Chinese want to restrict themselves to tofu in a restaurant...
        mikekchar 7y ago
        Super interesting. I've never been to China, but I just assumed there must be tofu restaurants. But I guess Buddhism isn't such a powerful force in the country any more. In Japan, there are definitely tofu restaurants, but you have to look for them. Kyoto is quite famous for tofu, but there is a chain of very good tofu restaurants from Fukuoka (the name of which escapes me for the moment). You will also get amazing tofu if you ever eat at a shoujin ryouri restaurant (Japanese Buddhist vegan cuisine -- usually served at temples, but you can find the odd restaurant that's not necessarily part of the temple).
  - drhodes 7y ago
    https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantfoods.org/demos/tofu/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantf... This is the best recipe I've found, but I haven't made it yet, still trying to track down a good deal on soybeans.
    - simtel20 7y ago
      Super interesting. I'm living in a part of brazil where there is no packaged tofu for sale, so I've made it myself quite a bit. This recipe diverges from most of those I've seen in that it doesn't require a boil before straining out the solid mass. I've got plans to make some more tofu this week, so I'll try this out. Thanks!
      - simtel20 7y ago
        Probably too late to edit the above comment, so I'll add a comment. Since I don't need to/intend to use the solid mass of the beans (that would require cooking it), this recipe worked. I blended the beans, strained the liquid and boiled that and I've got two blocks of tofu in the fridge. It's extremely gratifying to have my tofu making simplified like this.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- leemailll 7y ago
  those who downvoting me must never tried to do it
- mikekchar 7y ago
  Glucono delta lactone is a super weird thing to make tofu with. I'm sure it works, but it's pretty unconventional. I'm actually quite curious to try it. Chinese tofu is usually make with calcium sulphate (gypsum) and Japanese tofu is usually make with magnesium chloride (nigari). Nigari is harder to use because it is quite bitter, but it has a very nice texture when done right (and balances the sweetness of the soy milk). Needs to be eaten quite fresh, though. Very good tofu requires a lot of knowledge and skill, but I'll agree that making something better than what you can get in the supermarket is about as hard as falling off a log. Edit: Just looked it up. Glucono delta lactone is used for making "silken" tofu, which is a fairly recent invention (in Japanese "kinu" tofu).
  - leemailll 7y ago
    Glucono delta lactone is really common nowadays in mass production, you take a look at hmart (https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu), and calcium sulfate is often add with it to beat down the sour. As I know both of the chemicals you mentioned are used in traditional Chinese tofu making, and they are still in market. Somehow, they require a lot trials to get it right, so for nonserious stuff, glucono delta lactone is easier. Also my guess about the traditional way is hard is that is all related to the water hardness and other ions in water
    - Obsnold 7y ago
      I made silken tofu at home recently just using calcium sulfate and soy milk that I had also made from scratch. I found it very easy and it worked on the first try. I'm in a hard water area so I'm not sure if that makes it easier or not.
- m0llusk 7y ago
  For me the heating and blending was always tedious so I really enjoyed using my soy milk maker machine. This is similar to how using a rice cooker makes having rice with meals easier, but much more so since making the soy milk to start is more involved than cooking rice.
  - _nalply 7y ago
    I just ordered a Tianyin Soy Milk Maker, hopefully it's not too trashy. Thanks for the idea!
- mfoy_ 7y ago
  The number of ingredients something has is not a good proxy for its difficulty. For example, tapioca only contains Cassava root, but here is how that is made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg Maybe provide more substantive comments in the future if you don't want down-votes?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
ConfusedDog 7y ago
-- Mr. Eng asked one of his parents’ former employees how much baking soda a particular recipe called for. He said, “A cup.” ... “Like a coffee cup?” “No, this one cup that we had at the shop.” The cup, naturally, had been thrown out. This is so hilariously like my Chinese mother-in-law, get angry recreating her receipt at my house because why would anyone not using her "standard" sized cups (giveaways at the mall). She is not the only one, so is my grandma and mom.
- jimmies 7y ago
  I have a Nepali friend who was at the time doing a Ph.D. in biology. Part of his daily routine is to do DNA/RNA extraction, which is highly time-consuming and precise. It involves using pipettes to transfer a minuscule amount of stuff from one tube to another, wait for hours, spin it, add some enzymes, spin it, etc. Sometimes you do what you're instructed to do from the kit and the extraction still doesn't produce a useable result. He had a pretty snuggly relationship with his advisor, and from time to time would bring his food to the lab to share. He told me one day, the advisor decided to ask him how to make the food. Like any biologist, she came to his house with a notebook, fully expected to be able to take notes. She expected him to show her the recipes like what you do in the DNA extraction. Instead, what he told her was... put a reasonable amount of this herb and that herb into the pot, then cook until done. She got frustrated and threw the notebook away and gave up the dream of cooking Nepali food. I am Vietnamese and there's that special Vietnamese dipping sauce recipe that I wanted to make to treat my Chinese friend at the time I stayed at her place. I got really frustrated when I was following a recipe to make it and couldn't get it right and wasted 3/4 of what I bought. My friend was like... so... let me try. And she just mixed shit randomly, tasted it, and tried adding more shit by her instinct, and it worked! I do enjoy cooking by the book from time to time. At the same time, there is a lot of Asian food that is made by instinct. It is part of what made the food interesting. It made the food part of an envolving species instead of being fixated. BTW, learning from mistakes, my biologist friend now has a website with real recipes you can sorta follow, please like and subscribe™ if you want to make Nepali food: https://avikarn.com/foodblog/ https://avikarn.com/foodblog/
  - h2odragon 7y ago
eeZah7Ux 7y ago
The gentrification of food :(
- bpicolo 7y ago
  Local artisans have been a critical part of food culture for hundreds/thousands of years. Plus, the shop is selling tofu bricks for 2 bucks. I would call this a great example of the opposite of gentrification - bringing something back to its humble roots while allowing for sustainability in the modern economy.
  - eeZah7Ux 7y ago
    Did you even read the article? People leave the shop after seeing tofu being sold for $2 instead of $1
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - Glawen 7y ago
    The problem with that sort of artisan is that you never know if it is really artisan stuff, or factory prepared mixtures. Many shops look like artisan shos, but are just selling overpriced factory food. I really became wary of them. In France where I live, it is really becoming hard to know if they really prepare the baguettes completely by themselves (flour + yeast + cooking) or if they buy ready made mixtures, and only cook them.
Obsnold 7y ago
If anyone is interested in making their own tofu I found these books to be quite good. Asian tofu by Andrea Nguyen The book of tofu by William shurtleff and akiko aoyagi The first is a bit more basic but covers a range of Asian tofu and is easier to get into. The second is very dense with information and is more specifically about Japanese tofu but after getting started with the first book I much prefer referring to this one.

61 points by dankohn1 7y ago

leemailll 7y ago

Homemade tofu is incredible easy to make, it's only soybean, of course, water, heat, and Glucono delta-lactone

onion2k 7y ago
"<doing the thing> is easy, you just need to know how to <do the thing>" isn't very helpful.
- leemailll 7y ago
  If you really want to try I can give you a recipe: 1. 180g dried soybean soaked in water overnight 2. drain the water then put in 1100ml water in a food processor 3. grinding for 1 min 4. filter the liquid 5. measure the liquid weight or volume for weight of glucono delta lactone, 3g per 1000g or 1000ml, dissolve it in water as little as possible, and then add to a large bowl big enough to contain the liquid 6. boil the liquid, after boiling turn to mid heat for 5min. Then filter. now you have soy milk 7. remove from heat, stir to dissipate heat 8. slowing pouring to the bowl added with glucono delta lactone, pouring toward the wall not the bottom of the bowl 9. cover the bowl with paper towel or cheese cloth, then the lid, waiting for 30 mins voila now you have Douhua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua), which often seen in China as a breakfast dish to get tofu, just drain the water out, to do so put the douhua in some container with holes at bottom and then add weight.
  - adrianN 7y ago
    Is the result much better than the stuff I find at the supermarket? Because that sounds like at least on hour of work.
    - leemailll 7y ago
      Well that depends on the kind of tofu you like, how firm it is? What kind of coagulant you like? Glucono delta lactone will make the tofu with a light sour flavor, some traditional way will not. Also water also play a role in. The recipe is easy but definitely not one suits every condition. It is a trial and error to fine tune it to your need. To be honest, this is one of the easiest dishes I ever tried, and also one hour work is on the short side
    - mikekchar 7y ago
      Let me put it this way... It's better in the same way that fresh home made bread is better than store bought bread. Now imagine that you live in a country (like Japan) where the average person thinks that a baguette is essentially a big hotdog bun that has been sitting on a shelf for 2 weeks. That's the equivalent of the tofu that you tend to buy in a supermarket in the US. It is possible to buy good store bought tofu, but usually it is unavailable unless you have a big Asian population nearby. Like bread in France, you really want to go to the tofu store in the morning for your tofu because day old tofu is tasteless and horrible (just like day old bread). Whether or not you can actually make great tofu at home without a lot of practice is debatable, but at the very least the average person can make something that is worlds apart from the lifeless, bitter chunks of woe that the supermarket calls tofu. If you get a chance to go to a real tofu restaurant in Japan or China, you should leap at the chance. It's just like your first trip to a boulangerie in Paris -- mind blowing.
      - mytailorisrich 7y ago
        I don't know in Japan but in China I have never seen a "tofu restaurant". Tofu, of which there are many types, is usually part of dishes and I doubt Chinese want to restrict themselves to tofu in a restaurant...
        mikekchar 7y ago
        Super interesting. I've never been to China, but I just assumed there must be tofu restaurants. But I guess Buddhism isn't such a powerful force in the country any more. In Japan, there are definitely tofu restaurants, but you have to look for them. Kyoto is quite famous for tofu, but there is a chain of very good tofu restaurants from Fukuoka (the name of which escapes me for the moment). You will also get amazing tofu if you ever eat at a shoujin ryouri restaurant (Japanese Buddhist vegan cuisine -- usually served at temples, but you can find the odd restaurant that's not necessarily part of the temple).
- drhodes 7y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantfoods.org/demos/tofu/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantf... This is the best recipe I've found, but I haven't made it yet, still trying to track down a good deal on soybeans.
  - simtel20 7y ago
    Super interesting. I'm living in a part of brazil where there is no packaged tofu for sale, so I've made it myself quite a bit. This recipe diverges from most of those I've seen in that it doesn't require a boil before straining out the solid mass. I've got plans to make some more tofu this week, so I'll try this out. Thanks!
    - simtel20 7y ago
      Probably too late to edit the above comment, so I'll add a comment. Since I don't need to/intend to use the solid mass of the beans (that would require cooking it), this recipe worked. I blended the beans, strained the liquid and boiled that and I've got two blocks of tofu in the fridge. It's extremely gratifying to have my tofu making simplified like this.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
leemailll 7y ago
those who downvoting me must never tried to do it
mikekchar 7y ago
Glucono delta lactone is a super weird thing to make tofu with. I'm sure it works, but it's pretty unconventional. I'm actually quite curious to try it. Chinese tofu is usually make with calcium sulphate (gypsum) and Japanese tofu is usually make with magnesium chloride (nigari). Nigari is harder to use because it is quite bitter, but it has a very nice texture when done right (and balances the sweetness of the soy milk). Needs to be eaten quite fresh, though. Very good tofu requires a lot of knowledge and skill, but I'll agree that making something better than what you can get in the supermarket is about as hard as falling off a log. Edit: Just looked it up. Glucono delta lactone is used for making "silken" tofu, which is a fairly recent invention (in Japanese "kinu" tofu).
- leemailll 7y ago
  Glucono delta lactone is really common nowadays in mass production, you take a look at hmart (https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu), and calcium sulfate is often add with it to beat down the sour. As I know both of the chemicals you mentioned are used in traditional Chinese tofu making, and they are still in market. Somehow, they require a lot trials to get it right, so for nonserious stuff, glucono delta lactone is easier. Also my guess about the traditional way is hard is that is all related to the water hardness and other ions in water
  - Obsnold 7y ago
    I made silken tofu at home recently just using calcium sulfate and soy milk that I had also made from scratch. I found it very easy and it worked on the first try. I'm in a hard water area so I'm not sure if that makes it easier or not.
m0llusk 7y ago
For me the heating and blending was always tedious so I really enjoyed using my soy milk maker machine. This is similar to how using a rice cooker makes having rice with meals easier, but much more so since making the soy milk to start is more involved than cooking rice.
- _nalply 7y ago
  I just ordered a Tianyin Soy Milk Maker, hopefully it's not too trashy. Thanks for the idea!
mfoy_ 7y ago
The number of ingredients something has is not a good proxy for its difficulty. For example, tapioca only contains Cassava root, but here is how that is made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg Maybe provide more substantive comments in the future if you don't want down-votes?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ConfusedDog 7y ago

-- Mr. Eng asked one of his parents’ former employees how much baking soda a particular recipe called for. He said, “A cup.” ... “Like a coffee cup?” “No, this one cup that we had at the shop.” The cup, naturally, had been thrown out. This is so hilariously like my Chinese mother-in-law, get angry recreating her receipt at my house because why would anyone not using her "standard" sized cups (giveaways at the mall). She is not the only one, so is my grandma and mom.

jimmies 7y ago
I have a Nepali friend who was at the time doing a Ph.D. in biology. Part of his daily routine is to do DNA/RNA extraction, which is highly time-consuming and precise. It involves using pipettes to transfer a minuscule amount of stuff from one tube to another, wait for hours, spin it, add some enzymes, spin it, etc. Sometimes you do what you're instructed to do from the kit and the extraction still doesn't produce a useable result. He had a pretty snuggly relationship with his advisor, and from time to time would bring his food to the lab to share. He told me one day, the advisor decided to ask him how to make the food. Like any biologist, she came to his house with a notebook, fully expected to be able to take notes. She expected him to show her the recipes like what you do in the DNA extraction. Instead, what he told her was... put a reasonable amount of this herb and that herb into the pot, then cook until done. She got frustrated and threw the notebook away and gave up the dream of cooking Nepali food. I am Vietnamese and there's that special Vietnamese dipping sauce recipe that I wanted to make to treat my Chinese friend at the time I stayed at her place. I got really frustrated when I was following a recipe to make it and couldn't get it right and wasted 3/4 of what I bought. My friend was like... so... let me try. And she just mixed shit randomly, tasted it, and tried adding more shit by her instinct, and it worked! I do enjoy cooking by the book from time to time. At the same time, there is a lot of Asian food that is made by instinct. It is part of what made the food interesting. It made the food part of an envolving species instead of being fixated. BTW, learning from mistakes, my biologist friend now has a website with real recipes you can sorta follow, please like and subscribe™ if you want to make Nepali food: https://avikarn.com/foodblog/ https://avikarn.com/foodblog/
- h2odragon 7y ago

eeZah7Ux 7y ago

The gentrification of food :(

bpicolo 7y ago
Local artisans have been a critical part of food culture for hundreds/thousands of years. Plus, the shop is selling tofu bricks for 2 bucks. I would call this a great example of the opposite of gentrification - bringing something back to its humble roots while allowing for sustainability in the modern economy.
- eeZah7Ux 7y ago
  Did you even read the article? People leave the shop after seeing tofu being sold for $2 instead of $1
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Glawen 7y ago
  The problem with that sort of artisan is that you never know if it is really artisan stuff, or factory prepared mixtures. Many shops look like artisan shos, but are just selling overpriced factory food. I really became wary of them. In France where I live, it is really becoming hard to know if they really prepare the baguettes completely by themselves (flour + yeast + cooking) or if they buy ready made mixtures, and only cook them.

Obsnold 7y ago

If anyone is interested in making their own tofu I found these books to be quite good. Asian tofu by Andrea Nguyen The book of tofu by William shurtleff and akiko aoyagi The first is a bit more basic but covers a range of Asian tofu and is easier to get into. The second is very dense with information and is more specifically about Japanese tofu but after getting started with the first book I much prefer referring to this one.